aTypical Joe: a gay New Yorker living in the rural South
Friday, October 26, 2007
I want my TomTom! (One XL)
David Brooks bought a car with a G.P.S. and now he’s gone all batty:
I have relinquished control over my decisions to the universal mind. I have fused with the knowledge of the cybersphere, and entered the bliss of a higher metaphysic. As John Steinbeck nearly wrote, a fella ain’t got a mind of his own, just a little piece of the big mind - one mind that belongs to everybody. Then it don’t matter, Ma. I’ll be everywhere, around in the dark. Wherever there is a network, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a TiVo machine making a sitcom recommendation based on past preferences, I’ll be there. Wherever there’s a Times reader selecting articles based on the most e-mailed list, I’ll be there. I’ll be in the way Amazon links purchasing Dostoyevsky to purchasing garden furniture. And when memes are spreading, and humiliation videos are shared on Facebook - I’ll be there, too.
I am one with the external mind. Om.
I missed the Grapes of Wrath reference, Merlin Mann helped me to find it.
I still want a TomTom, but now a flat panel one with a battery so I can detach it from the windshield and walk around with it.
For Christmas.
Doug are you listening? 
Location, location, location was never like this before.
-Thanks Alex!
IN MEMORIUM: With GPS in the car the Kim family would have been spared its horrible tragedy. It’s a safety feature that will be standard on all cars sooner than we think.
AND LET’S NOT FORGET: If GPS makes it harder to get lost, new cellphone services that track whereabouts are now making it harder to hide. But with GPS in the skies it’s safer to fly.
Court orders Wilson freed
Tondee’s Tavern got it exactly right:
The Georgia Supreme Court on Friday ordered the release of Genarlow Wilson, the Douglas County teenager who has been serving a controversial 10-year sentence for consensual oral sex.
The court’s 4-3 decision upholds a Monroe County judge’s ruling that the sentence constituted cruel and unusual punishment under both the Georgia and U.S. constitutions.
The majority opinion said the sentence appeared to be “grossly disproportionate” to the teenager’s crime and noted that it was out of step with current law.
Wilson was expected to be released Friday afternoon from Al Burruss Correctional Training Facility in Monroe County, where he has been held since late 2005, according to his lawyer.
More coverage from the NYTimes and CNN.
All too long in coming, his attorney B.J. Bernstein says, “Genarlow is going to be committed to talking and working with young people to spread the message that he made a mistake that night and doesn’t want it to happen to anyone else.”
I think it would be appropriate that he and B.J. start working right away to free Joshua Widner. And for statutory rape reform.
LATER: AP and Jesse Jackson.
Police state chrnoicles
Terrorist watch list growing uncontrollably, soon to be at 1 million. Are you on it yet? [...]
Miami reporter arrested for standing on public sidewalk. Apparently, the Miami PD have been talking to the NYPD.
Here’s the story of the NYPD arresting a man for standing on a Times Square sidewalk. Here’s the Miami video:
It’s a provocative reporter stunt, but still… what country are we living in?
Migraine sufferers share their stories
Judith Warner has a post at the NYTimes Domestic Disturbances on migraines. She’s been trying to follow the advice of “Heal Your Headache,” by the Johns Hopkins University neurologist David Buchholz:
In Dr. Buchholz’s view, chronic migraine sufferers like me - I average around seven to twelve headaches a month - are, very often, victims of their own past treatment successes. Triptans, the new-ish class of drugs that bind to serotonin receptors and can work wonders when taken early in migraine attacks, cause rebound headaches, he says, if you take them more than two days a month. So do over-the-counter painkillers and stronger stuff like codeine and oxycodone.
Step 1 in his plan, then, involves removing such “quick fix” drugs from your life. Step 2 is about recognizing your migraine “triggers” and removing the ones - like certain foods, alcohol and caffeine - that you can do something about. (As opposed to the ones - like changes in barometric pressure, work deadlines and mothers-in-law - that you can’t do anything about.) Step 3 is daily preventive medicine - but the idea, in Buchholz’s book, is that if you do well enough at Steps 1 and 2, you might not have to go to Step 3.
I have been down that road. In comments I wrote:
My Greenwich Village doctor agreed with Dr. Buchholz’s theory but took it one step further, he believes migraines are a habit. Break the habit - do whatever it takes to go 6 months or more without one - and then quit all drugs and you will be headache free.
I liked the theory but it didn’t work for me. I tried everything, including Topamax. We never made the 6 months.
I left my Upper East Side doctor before him because we would sit in his office overlooking Central Park and talk about his latest book and his golf tours, not my headaches. A renowned expert in the field, he did nothing more for me than charge and arm and a leg for the same old prescription.
I respond well to the classic Imitrex (100 mg tablet), the only Triptan my insurance will cover. I take it at onset and the headache leaves. I just went through a period of reducing treatment out of a concern that I was stuck in a rebound cycle. I gave up on that. I treat myself at the slightest hint of a headache.
I do believe that my Village doctor was right in some way. My headaches may be a habit, and I have a pavlovian pain response. At even the suggestion of a headache I crumble. But until there is the research that Mary Jo hopes for, I will take my Triptan treatment.
And my take away from the comments of all the migraine sufferers here is, whatever works for you, do it!
If you suffer too, the comments on her post are a cornucopia of headache strategies.
LATER: When I posted my comment, there were 14. Now there are 179 and comments are closed. Mine’s not among them. I’m left to wonder why I didn’t make it through the moderator?
Genarlow rumor
Where’d this come from? Flackattack last night:
From the tip line:
Genarlow Wilson will breathe free air tomorrow.
GeniusRocket primary
GeniusRocket.com the top user-generated advertising website on the internet that was founded by former members of the Dean internet team, announced their “Genius Rocket Primary” today, calling on the user-generated political video community to submit positive advertisements for any of the declared presidential candidates and a chance to win up to $17,000 total ($1,000) per add.
Here’s how the GeniusRocket Primary works:
Round One: Upload your submission(s) by Friday, November 30th and ask your friends and family to vote on your submission. Spreading the word makes a difference—the number of votes and your overall rating from the community is taken into consideration by our judging panel when determining finalists for Round Two.
Round Two: Primary Voting takes place in early December. During Primary Voting, we’ll ask members of the community to vote for the best ad for each candidate from among the finalists.
The choice of the GeniusRocket community will determine the final winners. (This is a democracy, after all.)
Significantly, they want positive ads. Do it!
